tobacco control program to be eliminated from the Boston Health Department
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SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 285
30 Winter Street, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02108-4720
Attention All Tobacco Control Activists: At your earliest convenience before Christmas, please telephone Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (617-635-4000), City Councilor James Kelly (617-3203), or City Councilor Maureen Feeney (617-635-3455) to let them know why the tobacco control program should not be eliminated from the Boston Health Department.
Tobacco Control: Up in Smoke? Boston Public Health Commission Demonstrates Indecisiveness
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, December 17, 1996
Contact: Celia Wcislo, President
SEIU, Local 285
tel. (617) 426-0410 fax (617) 426-7116
[Boston] Recent actions and statements by Boston's Public Health Commission have indicated both a lack of direction and a retreat from the vital public function of tobacco control.
At a Nov. 22 Town Meeting for Commission staff, Acting Public Health Director Lillian Shirley announced that layoffs "were not anticipated soon." Less than a week later, Local 285 was notified by the Commissionís labor relations office that "all employees/titles" in the Tobacco Control Program were being "eliminated."
One reason given was "decreased funding." But this contradicts Massachusetts Department of Public Health records indicating 60% funding available until July 1997. The Commission did not respond to Local 285's queries into whether existing funding would be returned to the State re-allocated to select administrative staff who will attempt to carry out program functions.
A second reason was "regulatory compliance." City Councilor Daniel F. Conley has sponsored the "Boston Ordinance Limiting Tobacco Access by Youth."
Although this ordinance has yet to be enacted, Commission Counsel claimed the new ordinance would shift focus to enforcement alone. This action ignores recent Massachusetts based data suggesting that enforcement alone may not be the answer to tobacco control. On Sunday, November 29, 1996, the New York Times, the Charleston Gazette, and the Dallas Morning News reported on data presented by Nancy A. Rigotti and colleagues at the 124th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association. In a two-year study of 3 pairs of demographically-matched Massachusetts cities, investigators found that while such ordinances did in fact reduce the sales of tobacco to minors, there was no difference in prevalence of smoking among teens in towns with and without ordinances.
Anti-tobacco health activists decry enforcement alone which merely involves collecting a permit fee from retailers and period compliance checks. Here, the focus is completely on the retailer. The elimination of the Tobacco Control Program by a major cityís Health Department is tantamount to saying that as long as Boston retailers do not sell to youth, we will forget about adult smokers.
When union representatives asked the Boston Public Health Commission Counsel who would handling the new enforcement activity, they responded that the Law Department would. (Usually Law Dept. personnel serve only in an advisory capacity to public health programs). Seven days later, the Counsel again reversed course and said the Commission would delegate this activity to the Inspectional Services Dept. Such hasty and unquestioned delegations of authority usually occur in small towns, not in large cities that have a well-established Public Health Dept. with specific expertise on tobacco hazards.
Even the best and most qualified city building or restaurant inspectors do not currently have the public health expertise of the Boston Tobacco Control staff. For example, this expertise includes developing smoking cessation programs, public protection of nonsmokers with respiratory sensitivity, public warnings, and monitoring of indoor air contamination by second hand smoke. Tobacco control efforts in the community usually consist of someone in a health department who, in addition to performing retailer compliance check, develops educational materials for area health centers, schools, hospitals, businesses, and residences. The eliminated Boston Tobacco Control Program monitored compliance to the law against selling tobacco to minors and they generated citywide educational materials and billboards. It provided many services that clinic programs could not readily perform.
When the new ordinance is enacted, the incoming permit fee revenues will simply be an instance of the city choosing to profit from a childhood disease: addiction to nicotine. The elimination of this program, in light of the existing grant money and the projected revenues from permit fees which can fund it, set a bad precedent for the Boston Public Health Commissionís commitment to a major public health danger.
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